A TEESSIDE man has been honoured for helping in the aftermath of last year’s devastating Chilean earthquake.

John Kenyon was the first foreign consul on the scene when the huge quake, measuring 8.8 on the Richter scale, brought down buildings and killed several hundred people on February 27.

John, who was brought up in Redcar but now lives in Chile, abandoned a family holiday to rush to Concepcion - the biggest city near the quake’s epicentre.

Once there, he drove around the streets in a Union Flag-clad van to show help had arrived.

For seven gruelling days, he and a Chilean friend were on hand to assist citizens from Britain and elsewhere.

John, 46, an experienced yachtsman and a champion Enduro motorbike rider, is now celebrating being awarded the MBE in the New Year’s Honours list.

Born in Guisborough, John attended Redcar’s Sacred Heart School. As a child, he enjoyed fishing, model-making, rugby and swimming. After a five-year apprenticeship as a mechanic at Denney’s garage and a short stint at a car rental firm, he moved to Majorca in 1969 with a view to getting jobs on yachts after a suggestion by his shipyard manager dad Jack.

Before long, he’d landed a job as second engineer on an Arab sheikh’s yacht.

Fifteen years ago, having briefly returned to Britain to get his yachtmaster’s qualifications, he became - and remains - skipper on the Chilean yacht Gloriana.

He now lives in Puerto Montt with Chilean wife Paola and children Grace, four, and Christopher, three.

In 2006, he was appointed the Honorary British Consul in Chile, a role in which he helps British citizens with passport and other queries. But nothing could have prepared him for the scenes he found at Concepcion.

John, Paola and the kids had been holidaying on the coast in Pucon, about 250 miles away, when the quake hit, leaving them cowering beneath their hotel mattresses.

After being asked by the British Embassy to head for Concepcion, John quickly dashed home to load up a van full of bottled water, blankets, emergency supplies - and the 6ft x 4ft Union Flag which would become a symbol of his week patrolling Concepcion’s shattered streets in his friend’s big van.

Parents Jack and Mary, of Granville Terrace, Redcar, had to follow John’s exploits from afar.

Jack, 80, said: “He said that when they got to Concepcion, the town had been wrecked. He hasn’t told us too much about what he had to deal with - only that there were a lot of sights you wouldn’t want to talk about.” Mary added: “And that there were a lot of heroes - I remember him stressing that.”

During his week in Concepcion, where he was based in a hotel with a roof but little else, John worked hard tracking down as many Brits as he could. He also received letters of thanks from the American and Canadian governments.

And he’s left a lasting legacy if such a disaster ever unfolds again.

Mary explained: “The last Chilean earthquake was in the 1960s, so people didn’t know how to respond.

“There was no plan in place, but there is now because John and his friend talked about what worked and what didn’t, and gave their findings to a meeting of South American consuls in Buenos Aires.”

Mary says John was “absolutely delighted” to hear he’d been awarded the MBE.